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An attractive plant that I bought from Constantine Garden Nursery at their closing sale. Jim and Jenny Archibald say in their 1987 list "Mysterious name with no authority but a distinct clone with fine, copper tinted leaves." The origin of the name is uncertain but writing in The New Plantsman in 2001, Gary Dunlop suggests: "The origin and identity of R. purdomii can no longer be estblished with certainty, as the only herbarium specimen bearing this name was lost, and presumably also the collection number that it bore. However, the circumstantial evidence would seem to suggest that, on the balance of probabilities, R. purdomii was the name given to an herbarium specimen, or specimens, of Purdom 393 by the Arnold Arboretum and that the plants originally bearing this name in England originated from the Veitch nursery at the time of its demise." Chris Sanders has since uncovered evidence that Rodgersia rhizomes, rated XXX (very good) by Purdom, were sent by him to Veitch. They were grown in the Veitch Langley nursery near Slough on ground later taken over by J. C. Allgrove Ltd. (nurserymen). In 1924 J. C. Allgrove exhibited R. purdomii and wrote in the Gardners Chronicle that it "was introduced into this country by Mr. Purdom who collected it in China." In his catalogue for 1925, J. C. Allgrove seems to have corrected the name to Rodgersia aesculifolia following formal identification at Kew. Chris Sanders notes that plants of "R. purdomii" remain in gardens as good and distinct forms of R. aesculiflia and proposes the name R. aesculifolia Purdomii Group to cover them. |
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| 12th July 2018 | ||